By Ibrahim S. Bangura
Residents of Susan’s Bay, a slum community in Freetown, have on Monday, July 31, 2023, appealed for the Freetown City Council (FCC) to open five newly constructed toilet facilities for use to avoid open defecation at the wharf.
Eight months ago, after the community experienced a fire disaster, residents found it difficult to access shelter and toilet facilities.
In order to ease the difficulty and help avoid open defecation at the wharf, FCC together with partners was able to construct five new toilet facilities in the community.
Binta Bah, Chairlady of the Community, complained that the toilets had been constructed five months before, but until Freetown City Council has not opened them to public use. According to her, residents of the community defecate in the gutters and in black plastic containers at the wharf which she says is unhygienic.
Bah said that over the past few months they and their children had been experiencing diseases.
She estimates that the community has 20,000 population. “All of these residents are using the drainages and the wharf as their latrine. As a result of that we usually fall ill of malaria, diarrhoea and other illnesses that we don’t even know. This is happening as a result of us not using the toilet facilities. City Council with partners did us a good job here, but why are we not using the facilities? So, we are appealing to them to open the facilities for us,” Bah said.
Bah said that since the community has no proper drainages they are always encountering flooding which she added usually destroys their houses as well as their valuable property. .
According to Ibrahim Alpha Kamara, the Environmental and Sanitation Officer of Freetown City Council, the Council would have opened the toilet facilities before this time, but the past general elections held them back. “But certainly, in September this year, we shall open the toilets,” he said.